4 PROCEICDINGS OF THE 



also spoke, the latter detailing some of the observations of Prof. 

 Wellinauii on the ' Codex,' and the easy identification of some of 

 the figures in it, with the total falsity of others. 



The General Secretary also took up the subject of the new cases 

 for the Liuneau herbarium, announced for the previous meeting, 

 but postponed. He said that iu the autumn of 1914 the Council 

 took steps to guard the Linnean herbarium from damage by 

 enemv aircraft, by storing it in the basement. This arrangement 

 rendered consultation troublesome, and, during the past summer, 

 the Council decided to bring the herbarium from the basement to 

 its former position in the meeting-room. Additional security was 

 provided by enclosing the packets of plants in a series of 21 metal 

 cases, resting in an iron frame, and enclosed within an outer 

 cabinet lined with sheet asbestos and galvanized steel ; similar 

 non-combustible material took the place of the glass \\ hich pre- 

 viously shut in the original Linnean cabinets ; the three old original 

 cabinets have now been transferred to different uses in another 

 part of the Society's apartments. 



Dr. Eexdle showed specimens and illustrative lantern-slides of 

 Maidenia, a new genus of ITydrocharidete (see ' Journal of 

 Botany,' 1914, p. 313) allied to VaUhneriaAoxxnA near the King 

 Eiver, East Kimberley, N.W. Australia, by Mr. W. V. Fitzgerald. 

 The plants, which are submerged, consist of a slender stem a few 

 inches high, rooting in the mud and densely covered with filiform 

 leaves ; they are dioecious. The small female flowers arise on 

 much reduced axillary leaf-shoots and resemble those of VaUisneria. 

 A single flower contained in a spathe is carried above the surface 

 of the water by a long tlu-ead-like stalk ; it consists of three 

 purplish-red sepals crowning the ovary, \\ith which alternate three 

 spreading forked stigmas ; there is no trace of an inner perianth- 

 whorl or of staininodes. The ovary contains numerous erect 

 ovules which cover the interior walls. The male flowers arise in 

 sessile ovoid spikes, several of which are borne in the axils of 

 adjacent leaves forming an apparent whorl. Each spathe encloses 

 an axis bearing numerous stamens, and there is no trace of any 

 perianth ; the male spathe and its contents may therefore be 

 regarded as comparable with a male inflorescence of ValUsneria 

 in which each flower has been reduced to a single stamen. The 

 spathe is easily detached before the anthers are quite mature, and 

 we may assume that it is carried to the surface of the water, as are 

 the male flowers of ValUsneria, and that pollination occurs at the 

 surface of the water in a manner comparable with that described 

 in V. sjnralis. As in ValUsneria the ripening fruit is drawn 

 beneath the surface of the water by a spiral contraction of the 

 stalk. 



])r. Otto Stapf and Mr. J. C. Shenstone discussed some of the 

 points raised, and Dr. Eendle replied. 



